XVIII
Quanquam (quanquam: here adverb, not conj.: it qualifies what was said at the end of the previous chapter about women’s attire leaving part of the breasts exposed, in spite of which marriage in Germany remains strict.) severa illic matrimonia; nec ullam morum partem magis laudaveris: (laudaveris: see note for nec arare terram … tam facile persuaseris in ch. 14, near the end.) nam prope soli barbarorum singulis uxoribus contenti sunt, exceptis admodum paucis, qui non libidine, sed ob nobilitatem, (libidine, … ob nobilitatem: two ways to express cause, with abl. or ob + acc.) plurimis nuptiis ambiuntur. (ambiuntur: reflexive passive, as is comatur further on) Dotem non uxor marito, sed uxori maritus offert. Intersunt parentes et propinqui, ac munera probant: munera non ad delicias muliebres quaesita, (ad delicias muliebres quaesita: ad + acc. to indicate purpose: ‘chosen to satisfy feminine vanities’) nec quibus nova nupta comatur: (nec quibus nova nupta comatur: subjunctive in rel. clause of final sense replacing a ut clause: ‘with which the newlywed may deck herself’; three more examples of this type of clause come up at the end of the chapter.) sed boves et frenatum equum et scutum cum framea gladioque. In haec munera uxor accipitur: atque invicem ipsa armorum aliquid viro affert: hoc maximum vinculum, haec arcana sacra, hos conjugales deos (conjugales deos: such as Frigga or Frigg, the wife of the god Odin) arbitrantur. Ne se mulier extra virtutum cogitationes extraque bellorum casus putet, (ne … putet: negative final clause, ‘lest she should think that …’) ipsis incipientis matrimonii auspiciis admonetur, (ipsis incipientis matrimonii auspiciis admonetur: auspiciis is here used in the sense of ‘precepts‘, ‘commandments’, hence ‘powers’, ‘authority’: ‘she is warned by the powers inherent in the wdding rites themselves at the start of her new life’.) venire se laborum periculorumque sociam, idem in pace, idem in proelio (idem in pace, idem in proelio: ‘the same duty, both in peace and in war) passuram ausuramque: (passuram ausuramque: future participles employed as ordinary adjectives, ‘going’ or ‘destined to endure and dare’: up to Augustan times the future participle was found, almost exclusively, in the active periphrastic conjugation with forms of esse; adjective use was limited to futurus and venturus; starting with Virgil and Livy the domain of this participle expanded, its use as adjective becoming a regular occurrence in later writers, such as Seneca and Tacitus.) hoc juncti boves, hoc paratus equus, hoc data arma denuntiant; sic vivendum, sic pereundum: (sic vivendum, sic pereundum [est]: example of the second or passive periphrastic conjugation using the impersonal neuter gerundive of intransitive verbs with forms of esse to express obligation, duty, etc. In some texts pariendum (from pario, ‘to bear children’) is found in place of pereundum. ) accipere se, quae liberis inviolata ac digna reddat, quae nurus accipiant rursus, quae ad nepotes referantur. (accipere se, quae liberis … reddat, quae nurus accipiant rursus, quae ad nepotes referantur: three rel. clauses in place of as many purpose clauses with ut: ‘[aware] that she (se) is receiving these things to give them to her sons, in order for her daughters-in-law to receive them in turn and pass them on to her grand-children’.)